Scott Bakula wasn’t in love with New Orleans the first time he visited the city in 2013 to shoot the film “Elsa & Fred.”

“It was right before the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras, and it was an odd time to be here,” he tells CBS News. “I was here in the winter. I just thought, ‘Maybe I’ll be back,’ but I wasn’t thinking, ‘Wow, I really get New Orleans.'”

Now, though, as the star of “NCIS: New Orleans,” it’s safe to say Bakula “gets” the city now that he lives there five days a week.

“I have a much more personal relationship with the city now,” he explains. “I understand it so much more than I did before.”

Bakula says he knows now why many New Orleans natives were so unwilling to leave their city after Katrina.

Mac “Dr. John” Rebennack will play himself and perform on the second-season premiere of “NCIS: New Orleans,” airing at 8 p.m. Sept. 22 on WWL-TV. The episode also marks the debuts of Daryl “Chill” Mitchell and Shalita Grant as regular cast members (both played recurring guest roles on the show in season one).

The episode’s title: “Sic Semper Tyranis”

The episode description, per CBS: “After a military convoy is bombed on a New Orleans bridge, Pride and the team plan a dangerous undercover operation to retrieve a stolen missile and prevent an attack on a U.S. Naval ship.”